Out of New York and bred in Australia and Ohio, respectively, The Golden Filter is Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman. The duo's narrative has progressed along a recent, yet very familiar trend in music: make song, get blogged, release album, tour. Their first single "Solid Gold" was released in early 2009 to much acclaim, over a year before their debut LP Voluspa eventually released. This (somewhat) new process of music dissemination has created a sort of Jekyll-and-Hyde monster. Certain days the Internet greets us with truly remarkable, fresh new music. Others it presents rehashes of formulas done a million times over--and pale in comparison at that. The problem, however, isn't that more music, good or bad, is hitting our eardrums at faster rates. The problem is that too often bloggers submit to hyperbole, quick to label a new band, DJ--whoever--the next Sonic Youth, Prince, or even The Beatles. And this is long before an actual full-length has even hit the mixing stages. The Golden Filter seem all too familiar with this, admitting themselves that not much new music they've been listening to has lasted their "3-month trial"--that is, outlasting its own hype and surviving as an actual great piece of music. So how does TGF, unlike so many fallen musicians before, resist the ill-fated blog-hyped doom? more ›

Cut Copy, Hot Chip and Hercules and Love Affair have proven that there is room on Chicago's dancefloors for more than juke and electro. Drawing on influences from post-punk to disco to the radio greats of the past, it seems electronic pop is gaining momentum in a big way. more ›